KR101331096B1 - Image recording apparatus and method for black box system for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a vehicle black box system, and more particularly, to an image recording apparatus and method for a vehicle capable of optimally recording an image according to the number of image input sources by detecting an image input source (camera). The present invention for this purpose is to generate and output a video signal; A camera detector for detecting whether a camera is connected; A controller configured to automatically set encoded image quality of a corresponding camera according to the number of cameras detected by the camera detector; An image encoding unit encoding an image of a camera detected by the camera detecting unit at an encoded image quality set by the controller; And a storage unit for storing the image encoded by the image encoding unit.

Description

Image recording apparatus and method for black box system for vehicle}

The present invention relates to a vehicle black box system, and more particularly, to an image recording apparatus and method for a vehicle capable of optimally recording an image according to the number of image input sources by detecting an image input source (camera).

In general, a vehicle black box is a small camera installed in the front and rear glass of the car to record the situation at the time of the accident, and stores the sound around the installed micro to the storage medium (eg memory card). Normally, record the situation related to driving as long as the storage medium guarantees. The vehicle black box is activated immediately when the vehicle is started. When an accident occurs, the impact of the driver's voice or impact, the accelerator's operation status, vehicle speed, and time are recorded in detail on the storage medium.

1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a conventional vehicle black box system. Referring to FIG. 1, the vehicle black box system captures the sensors 14 and 16 for detecting the speed and the external impact of the vehicle, the front camera 10 capable of capturing the front of the vehicle, and the rear of the vehicle. It is provided with a rear camera 12 and a black box 18 for storing the driving information of the vehicle.

The black box 18 includes video signal processing means 20, 22, and 24 for decoding and encoding a video signal in which the input and output of the video signals by the front camera 10 and the rear camera 12 are controlled and input and output; Travel data memory for storing the driving conditions taken from the front and rear cameras as a video signal for a predetermined time based on the current time by the microcomputer 28 and the timer 34 for controlling the black box 18 as a whole. 30 and a video memory 26 which decompresses and stores the current video signal compressed in the traveling data memory 30.

In addition, the display unit 44 displaying the video signals stored in the driving data memory 30 and the video memory 26 and the speed sensor 14 signal and the output sensor 16 signal for inputting the signal to the microcomputer 28. An input interface unit 32 is provided.

The driving data memory 30 repeatedly stores and removes the driving state of the vehicle at regular intervals, and stores the driving state before and after the accident by the signal of the shock sensor.

Such a black box system used in a vehicle is described in detail in Korean Patent Application No. 10-1996-000465 "Vehicle Black Box System".

However, the conventional vehicle black box system described above has a problem of recording an image only for a preset camera. For example, in the conventional vehicle black box system, when the camera was expanded, the settings of the camera could be recorded only by changing the setting.

That is, the conventional black box system for a vehicle has a problem in that an optimal image corresponding to the number of image input sources (cameras) cannot be recorded by actively detecting a camera that is an image input source.

The problem to be solved by the present invention, in order to solve the problems of the prior art, a vehicle image recording apparatus and method capable of optimally recording the image according to the number of the image input source by detecting the image input source (camera) The purpose is to provide.

In order to achieve the above object, an image recording apparatus for a vehicle according to the present invention includes a camera for generating and outputting an image signal; A camera detector for detecting whether the camera is connected; A controller configured to automatically set encoding image conditions of a corresponding camera according to the number of cameras detected by the camera detector; And an image encoding unit for encoding the image signal output from the camera according to an encoding image condition set by the controller.

Preferably, the image encoding unit may include a storage unit for storing the image encoded.

Preferably, the image encoding unit may include a lookup table in which the number of image frames encoded by the image encoder is stored.

Preferably, the controller may set an encoded image condition of the corresponding camera with reference to an encoded image frame per second of the lookup table.

Advantageously, the lookup table stores the number of encoded image frames per second inversely proportional to the number of detected cameras.

Advantageously, the lookup table stores the number of encoded image frames per second that weight each of the sensed cameras.

Preferably, the camera detector detects a physical change generated when the camera is connected to detect whether the camera is connected.

In order to achieve the above object, the vehicle image recording method according to the present invention comprises the steps of: detecting the presence of a camera; Setting image encoding conditions of each camera according to the number of detected cameras; And encoding the image output from the sensed camera under the set encoding condition.

Preferably, the setting of the video encoding condition sets the video encoding quality of each camera by referring to the number of video frames per second encoded in the lookup table.

Preferably, the setting of the image encoding condition sets the image encoding quality so as to be inversely proportional to the detected camera number with reference to the encoding image frames per second of the lookup table.

Preferably, the setting of the video encoding condition sets the video encoding quality according to the weight applied to each of the sensed cameras with reference to the encoding video frames per second of the lookup table.

According to the present invention, by automatically detecting the presence or absence of a video input source (camera) by recording the image optimally according to the number of the video input source, to solve the problem of acquiring the image only for the set camera which is a problem of the prior art The usability of the vehicle black box system can be improved.

1 is a block diagram of a conventional vehicle black box system.
2 is a configuration diagram of a vehicle video recording apparatus according to the present invention.
3 is a view of a lookup table of an embodiment applied to the present invention.
4 is a view of a lookup table of another embodiment to which the present invention is applied.
5 is a flowchart of a video recording method for a vehicle according to the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention is capable of various modifications and various embodiments, and specific embodiments are illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the detailed description. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not to be limited to the specific embodiments, but includes all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a configuration diagram of a vehicle video recording apparatus according to the present invention. Although four cameras 100a, 100b, 100c, and 100d are shown in FIG. 2, this is illustrated as an example for description, and the present invention is not limited thereto.

The camera applied to the vehicle black box system is basically connected to the camera detection unit 110.

In general, one camera of a vehicle black box system is installed on the windshield of a vehicle to record and store a front image while the vehicle is in operation, and is used as an accident handling data in the event of a traffic accident. This is on the increasing trend.

Conventional vehicle black box system has the inconvenience of having to reset the system through the expert because there is no function to detect the additionally installed camera when the camera is additionally installed, the present invention is a black through the camera detection unit 110 Since the automatic detection of the presence of the camera connected to the box system solves the conventional inconvenience.

That is, the camera detecting unit 110 detects whether the camera is connected by detecting a physical change, for example, a change in voltage level, that occurs when the camera is connected to the black box system. More specifically, the camera detection unit 110 of the present invention is a Serial Peripheral Interface Bus (SPI) signal or an I2C (or I ² C) (Inter-Integrated Circuit) signal used to determine whether a communication connection between two devices is successful. The signal is used to detect the presence of a camera.

The SPI is a Serial Peripheral Interface Bus, a synchronous serial data connection standard named after the Motorola architecture operating in an architecture full duplex communication mode; I2C (I²C) (I-Square-C) is a serial computer bus developed by Philips that is used to connect low-speed peripherals to motherboards, embedded systems and mobile phones. .

One camera, that is, camera 1 (100a) is connected to the camera detection unit 110 by default. Cameras 100b, 100c, and 100d that are additionally connected are sensed through SPI or I2C, respectively.

The controller 150 is connected to the camera detector 110, the image encoder 130, and the lookup table 120.

The controller 150 sets encoding conditions of each camera performed by the image encoder 130 according to the number of cameras detected by the camera detector 110.

That is, the controller 150 controls the image encoder 130 to encode the image of the camera with encoding quality according to the number of cameras with reference to the lookup table 120 as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4.

Currently, a typical automotive black box system processes 30 frames of image per second. Therefore, as the number of cameras increases, it is necessary to allocate the number of video frames per second encoding for each camera. That is, if there are at least two cameras, it is necessary to adjust the encoding quality (resolution) of each camera video.

For example, if the image processing capability of the vehicle black box system is 30 frames per second, and the number of camera installations detected by the camera detector 110 is one, the controller 150 controls the image encoder 130. The image quality of the detected one camera 100a may be set to encode 30 frames per second.

For another example, if the image processing capability of the vehicle black box system is 30 frames per second, and the number of camera installations detected by the camera detector 110 is two, the controller 150 controls the lookup table (FIGS. 3 and 4). ), Encoding conditions for each camera image performed by the image encoder 130 may be set.

For example, when the controller 150 refers to the lookup table of FIG. 3, the controller 150 may control the image encoder 130 to encode an image of each camera at 15 frames per second.

That is, when the control unit 150 controls the image encoding unit 130 with reference to the lookup table as shown in FIG. 3, encoding frames per second for the images of each camera according to the equal division conditions stored in the lookup table It can be split evenly and encoded. Accordingly, the controller 150 may control the image encoder 130 to encode each camera image at 15 frames per second in the case where there are two sensed cameras described above, or 3 when the number of detected cameras is 3 The image encoding unit 130 may be controlled to encode 10 frames per second for the images of the respective cameras. When the number of detected cameras is 4, the image encoding is encoded so that the images of the four cameras are encoded at 7 frames per second. The unit 130 may be controlled.

In addition, when the controller 150 refers to the lookup table of FIG. 4, the controller 150 controls the image encoder 130 to encode 20 images per second with respect to the image of the camera 1 (100a). For the image of 100b), the image encoder 130 may be controlled to encode 10 frames per second.

That is, when the control unit 150 controls the image encoding unit 130 with reference to the lookup table as shown in FIG. 4, encoding frames per second for an image of each camera are determined according to the weight division condition stored in the lookup table. It can be split and encoded differently.

For example, in the lookup table shown in FIG. 4, the number of encoded frames per second is assigned to camera 1 (100a) photographing the front of the vehicle having the highest importance in terms of the camera position, and in order of high importance. You may be storing the number of encoded frames per second.

Accordingly, when the lookup table of FIG. 4 is referred to, when the number of cameras detected by the camera detector 110 is three, the controller 150 may perform per second for an image of the front camera, for example, the camera 1 (100a). The image encoder 130 may be controlled to encode 15 frames. Similarly, the image encoding unit 130 may be controlled to encode the remaining cameras, for example, the images of the camera 2 (100b) and the camera 3 (100C) at 10 frames per second and 5 frames per second.

The image encoder 130 may encode an image provided from each camera under the control of the controller 150. An image encoding operation of the image encoding unit 130 may be in accordance with a known conventional image encoding technique, except that the encoding is performed by adjusting the number of frames per second under the control of the controller 150 of the present invention.

The image storage unit 140 may be, for example, a storage medium such as SD / Micro SD / SSD / HDD, and may store an image encoded and output by the image encoding unit 130.

The operation of the video recording apparatus for a vehicle according to the present invention configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, when power is applied to the vehicle black box system, the camera detector 110 may detect the presence or absence of a camera connected to the vehicle black box system (S110). Here, the camera detection unit 110 may automatically detect whether the camera is connected using SPI or I2C.

When the camera connected to the vehicle black box system is automatically detected, the controller 150 checks the number of detected cameras and encodes the image encoder 130 according to the number of cameras identified by referring to the lookup table 120. The operation may be controlled (S120). The encoding operation control in step S120 is as described above.

The image encoder 130 may perform an encoding operation on the image output from each camera according to the encoding operation control, for example, the control of the number of encoding frames, to the controller 150 (S130).

The encoded image data output from the image encoding unit 130 may be stored in the image storage unit 140 and used as driving information or accident confirmation data in case of an accident (S140).

Obviously, the above-described vehicle image recording method may be performed by an automated procedure in time-series order by a software program or the like embedded in a storage medium. The codes and code segments that make up the program can be easily deduced by a computer programmer in the field. In addition, the program is stored in a computer readable media, and read and executed by a computer to implement the method. The information storage medium includes a magnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, and a carrier wave medium.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as defined in the following claims And changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

100: camera 110: camera detection unit
120: lookup table 130: video encoding unit
140: image storage unit 150: control unit

Claims (10)

In a video recording apparatus for a vehicle,
A camera for generating and outputting an image signal;
A camera detector for detecting whether the camera is connected;
A controller configured to automatically set an encoding condition for the video signal of the corresponding camera according to the number of cameras detected by the camera detector by referring to a lookup table in which the number of image frames per second for setting an encoding condition is stored;
And an image encoder for encoding the image signal output from the camera according to the encoding condition set by the controller.
The method of claim 1,
And a storage unit for storing the encoded image output from the image encoding unit. delete The method of claim 1,
And the number of image frames per second inversely proportional to the number of detected cameras.
The method of claim 1,
And the number of image frames per second to give weight to each of the detected cameras is stored in the lookup table.
The method of claim 1,
And the camera detector detects a physical change generated when the camera is connected to detect whether the camera is connected. In a vehicle image recording method,
Detecting whether a camera for outputting an image signal is connected;
Setting an encoding condition for the video signal of the corresponding camera according to the number of detected cameras by referring to a lookup table in which the number of image frames per second for setting an encoding condition is stored;
And encoding the video signal of the corresponding camera under the set encoding condition.
delete The method of claim 7, wherein
The lookup table stores the number of image frames per second inversely proportional to the number of detected cameras,
The setting of the image encoding condition may include setting the encoding condition to be inversely proportional to the detected camera number with reference to the number of image frames per second in the lookup table.
The method of claim 7, wherein
The lookup table stores the number of image frames per second, which weight each of the detected cameras.
The setting of the image encoding condition may include setting the encoding condition according to the weight applied to each of the sensed cameras by referring to the number of image frames per second of the lookup table.

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